Gamasutra reports that Activision has awarded performance bonuses intended for former Infinity Ward executives Jason West and Vince Zampella to the employees who have remained with Infinity Ward "who did not allegedly attempt to steal company secrets." They quote community rep and former game journalist Dan Amrich in a Discussion about Activision Facebook Page referring to "Vince and Jason's surreptitious attempts to photocopy and scan sensitive documents." Not that they are looking to stem the exodus of IW employees with cash, but Dan adds: "more people will probably go too, looking for new situations. Maybe they will join Respawn, maybe not. I'm confused, because by leaving, they are giving up their bonus -- and the more people that leave, the bigger the bonus gets for the people who stay."

MMORPGHoD wrote on Apr 23, 2010, 09:30:Could the company have withheld it and been legally correct to do so? Absolutely.

No, not absolutely. We have no idea how these bonuses were promised. If it was in a contract with specific terms, if you met those terms it doesn't matter if you were still at the company when they gave them out a year or 5 years or 10 years later, you'd still be owed the bonus.